Starting Monday, April 12, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department will be using the state-run platform, My Turn, for vaccine appointments.
The announcement was made today by Public Health Director at Santa Barbara County Dr. Van Do-Reynoso.
My Turn is a centralized database where people can schedule their vaccine appointments without having to sign up or call the healthcare provider.
"It’s essentially a state requirement. Their whole vaccine roll-out and distribution et cetera, I expect could have gone better if it were controlled a little more centrally and so as soon as they made that decision, I don’t think that most people really had an option to jump on, if they wanted to continue to vaccinate,” Dr. Naishadh Buch, PharmD, Chief Operating Officer at Lompoc Valley Medical Center said.
Monday is also the first day that Lompoc Valley Medical Center (LVMC) will formally be deploying My Turn, having done a trial run last week.
Dr. Buch says they accidentally opened the appointment window early, so some people are able to get their vaccine through My Turn starting on Monday.
Both the county vaccine clinics and LVMC said if someone is waiting for their second dose, they do not need to re-apply for the shot via My Turn. However, if they signed up for a first dose, they will most likely have to sign up again through the platform.
“So for the next month or so we’ll have a hybrid model where we’re doing a number of vaccination clinics based on My Turn appointments, and we’ll also have a number that we’ll do which are based on vaccinations that we previously administered,” Dr. Buch said.
The website is located at https://myturn.ca.gov/ or by clicking My Turn.
Both the County and Lompoc Valley Medical Center provided phone numbers for people who may not have access to the internet.
The Santa Barbara County call center can be reached 2-1-1 if the caller lives in Santa Barbara or (800) 400-1572 if they reside out of the area.
The vaccine clinic at Lompoc Valley Medical Center is reachable at (833)-433-5255.